Young Ruby was the latest avatar to be sent through Eraserhead Man’s Rabbit Hole portal, direct orders of the new Queen of Collagesity who is Mabel. Get to *that* story a little bit. Being a natural explorer, Ruby’s interest was immediately piqued by two larger dunes to the northwest of EM’s property, just beyond where Annie famously painted her mate Karl as a smooth, bloated blue boy instead of his regular hairy, chubby self.

Ruby knew that naming had become important on New Island, thus considered the appellation of these two dunes carefully. That was one of her assigned responsibilities.

She stood there for about 15 minutes…

… while the sun rose to her east, casting the dunes in a rosy light. Rose 1 and Rose 2 they shall be, she determined, and then treats herself to a banana split float at nearby Bumpy’s Ice Cream Village as a reward for her naming success, the first of a good number she would apply to both the island’s physical and political geographies.

Later, another new character named Tin Tin would discover two roses in a New Island skybox and understand the synchronistic resonance. There was an important difference between the two dunes, just like there was for these roses.

One is more natural and one is less so. The digging would commence soon.

—–

Tonight Annie would refind these two roses for a better picture of them than Tin Tin’s but she’d have to fly beyond Mars to do so.